Trump revives presidential fitness test – will US students run a mile?

What is the test?

Initiated by Dwight D Eisenhower in 1956, the test changed over the years, but generally consisted of five parts: a one-mile run, a shuttle run (moving as quickly as possible back and forth between two points), pull-ups or push-ups, sit-ups and the sit-and-reach (sitting on the ground with your legs outstretched and seeing how far down your legs your hands can reach).

According to the Harvard Health blog, the aim of the test was to “assess cardiovascular fitness, upper-body and core strength, endurance, flexibility, and agility”.

Why did the government start testing children’s fitness?

The test derives from the Kraus-Weber test for muscular fitness, an assessment developed by Dr Hans Kraus and Dr Sonja Weber. The test was administered to thousands of students across the US and Europe.

Researchers found that European students performed significantly better than their American counterparts: 59.7% of US students failed at least one of the test’s six exercises, compared with only 8.7% of European students.

According to a 1955 Sports Illustrated article, when Kraus presented his findings at the White House, President Eisenhower declared the problem “a serious one”.

The president seemed less worried about children’s health and wellbeing than he did their combat preparedness. According to the Department of Health and Human Service’s 50th anniversary booklet about the test, “his chief concern seemed to be the vulnerability to the red army”.

“Our growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security,” Eisenhower said.

Did the presidential fitness test make kids healthier?

It doesn’t seem so. A 2025 report in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that from 2007 to 2023, trends had “significantly worsened” for “child mortality; chronic physical, developmental and mental health conditions; obesity; sleep health; early puberty; limitations in activity; and physical and emotional symptoms”.

And when it comes to competition with Europe, the US is faring even worse than it did before. Dr Christopher Forrest, one of the study’s authors, told NPR that back in the 1960s, “the chance that a child was going to die in the United States was the same as European nations”.

But from 2010 to 2023, “kids in the United States were 80% more likely to die”, than those in Europe.